In this 15th Issue of Lunaris Review, the writers take readers on a journey โ to share in the appendages of grief; the subtleties of love, of longing for what was & the possibilities of dreams in the realist world.
In โAnatomy of Fire and Finding Solace,โ Hassan Usman offers us a craft-talk on warmth & peopling:
If You Want To Know
How To Surround Your Home
With Plenty People
Without Sending Them
An Invitation โ Set Up A Fire
As if by divinity, Sandeep Kumar Mishra in his poem, โBody Orchard (Older Days)โ, introduces us to an extended list of โpeopleโ whose company we may enjoy: โFruit is for sharing, with friends, family and / neighbors even if your neighbors are bears or cows,โ he writes. He extends an invitation to other creatures to join in the joy (& misery) of living, a reminder that the human is only human in the expansive presence of other creations. Sandeepโs poem is filled with snips of memories that transport me to my grandpaโs cottage at Nsuansa where I have also shared fruits with sheep, ducks, wild birds, and cousins.
Tshepiso Mabula in โUpward Mobilityโ offers us an intimate interrogation of grief & joy: โSide by side, two cow skins hung next to one another over the high wall, one for the sad family marking the loss of a matriarch and the other marking the joyful elation of a daughter who had found a husband man enough to marry her with cows.โ Here, cows are not just โneighborsโ as in Sandeepโs poem but an offering to โmark the occasionโ of a matriarchโs loss.
Although this issue is un-themed, by some stroke of divine intervention, the stories run into each other in a seamless beaut. In this volume, Lunaris Review continues the work of offering a platform for new voices & yet maintaining their rich taste in literature. Like some of the writers in this issue, Lunaris Review offered me a platform when I set out on my journey to publishing โ it is a story that moves from Drobo to Sunyani to Hohoe through virtual worlds to Cape Coast, where I also write from today.
To not bore you, reader, youโre welcome to Lunaris Review #15!
Henneh Kyereh Kwaku,
Cape Coast, Ghana.
